How to get the "homepage" listed in google sitemaps?

hydn

I've installed the sitemaps addon but that added the categories but does NOT add the index page. When I Google my site every other page except index shows up.

the "domain.com/" is NOT listed. Other forum software at least includes it.

x00

Good question part of the reason I don't think it is included is it is potential duplicated content, which is not a good thing.

Sitemaps sort of work like hint, the point is to draw attention to new conetent in order to trawl what is relevant.

However if you really want to do it there is a way. It involves couple of hooks, to do it properly, or you can cheat and and add it to sitemapsindex.php view.

vrijvlinder

http://www.xml-sitemaps.com

use this generator to create a complete site map Download the sitemap file using that link and put it into the domain root folder of your site.Go to your Google Webmaster account and add your sitemap URL.

hydn

and keep doing that every time a new discussion is added?

vrijvlinder

You only need to update the site map when you make changes to your site. When you install an app etc.

you asked how to get your domain to list, this is how. You need a site map in your root. This info is found in google web-masters tools. It has nothing to do with how Vanilla works.

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1352276

x00

Good question part of the reason I don't think it is included is it is potential duplicated content, which is not a good thing.

Sitemaps sort of work like hint, the point is to draw attention to new conetent in order to trawl what is relevant.

However if you really want to do it there is a way. It involves couple of hooks, to do it properly, or you can cheat and and add it to sitemapsindex.php view.

hydn

@x00 Thanks. For the answer:

hooks... or you can cheat and and add it to sitemapsindex.php view.

Though, what you elaborated on, makes a lot of sense. Reading up a bit more on the topic and I have to say, I agree. Also, it takes time for Google to sort out its indexing/raking of pages of new sites. So yes better to let Google decide that to "try" force it.

Thanks for the answer!

hydn

The plugin is doing its job well, I just have to give it time:
http://vanillaforums.org/addon/sitemaps-plugin

I must say I like the minimalist approach of the Sitemaps plugin. Far too many seo or sitemap plugins for web apps try to spoon-feed Google with every last page. All Google needs is a basic guide to the pages that "link to" the most important content and the crawler does the rest. So the homepage is best left up to Google as well.